Marvel's Falling Sales 6 6

[Doktor]

7 minutes ago, drotto said:

Well they are attempting to promote the X-Men relaunch as a back to basics approach with a modern twist. I am not holding my breath.  I also hate to admit it thought, that DC seems to have avoided much of this SJW stuff ( not completely) and are telling much more traditional comic stories. Granted it took countless relaunches, but it seems to be holding for now.  The market share for DC has also greatly improved proving that approach is working.

DC very recently saw their DC  YOU initiative fall flat on its face. That's probably what convinced them to forget the political junk & just stick to superhero comics.

[Ken Aldred]

 

Some of the stories using the new Muslim Ms Marvel are set around high school experiences as were our early Silver Age Amazing Spider-Man issues.  In my 50s, I'm not really that interested in reading more of the same again but,  judging from less-than-stratospheric sales figures, neither does that setting appear to have resonated much with the current generation of teens.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[ADAMANTIUM]

5 hours ago, Lucky Baru said:

Was All in the Family the exception to that rule?

 

4 hours ago, lizards2 said:

That show was very popular.  A lot of people dropped what they were doing every week to watch it.

Superior Donunts TV show on CBS is a little like Aall in the Family, talks about the different generation gaps, race relations/cops etc. It's a comedy as well

All in the family would be a different kind of atmosphere with today's stations.

[lizards2]

3 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

5 hours ago, Lucky Baru said:

Was All in the Family the exception to that rule?

 

5 hours ago, lizards2 said:

That show was very popular.  A lot of people dropped what they were doing every week to watch it.

Superior Donunts TV show on CBS is a little like Aall in the Family, talks about the different generation gaps, race relations/cops etc. It's a comedy as well

All in the family would be a different kind of atmosphere with today's stations.

I would imagine "insensitive" and "politically incorrect"

All the things in my wheelhouse!

[Lucky Baru]

3 hours ago, kav said:

all in the family was like mad magazine-it poked fun at both sides.  Its actual 'messages' were more generic, treat people good, dont judge a book by the cover etc.

Yes, but Archie was a big Nixon supporter.  While I know it was used as a foil; it was still political.

[kav]

27 minutes ago, Lucky Baru said:

Yes, but Archie was a big Nixon supporter.  While I know it was used as a foil; it was still political.

And Michael was a big Humphrey supporter.  The politics balanced.  It showed both sides as dolts.

[Bronty]

5 hours ago, Pontoon said:

I don’t think it would be successful, since the majority of comic buyers are older and want modern, dark and/or complex “adult” stories now. Myself - if they still made those kinds of books I might even buy them. The closest thing we have to them today would be the various animated universes: Batman, The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, etc. Those are shows that I enjoy, my young son enjoys and my wife enjoys. People like Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Man of Action and all the other writers and artists did an amazing job bringing old-style stories to life in the modern age; it’s too bad we can’t have comics in the same mold.

I think they just need to try harder.

We need a gay, Islamic, biologically female teenager who is half-black and half-asian and who identifies who as neither male nor female.  

Its so obvious Marvel!!

Edited April 6, 2017 by Bronty

[kav]

Just now, Bronty said:

I think they just need to try harder.

We need a gay, Islamic, biologically female teenager who is half-black and half-asian and who identifies who as half-male, half-female.  

Its so obvious Marvel!!

It really is, Marvel.  

[Ken Aldred]

3 hours ago, Bronty said:

I think they just need to try harder.

We need a gay, Islamic, biologically female teenager who is half-black and half-asian and who identifies who as neither male nor female.  

Its so obvious Marvel!!

 

Beyond a certain point, rather than inclusive, it'll end up sounding more like a freak teleportation pod accident than a realistic attempt at diversity.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[kav]

If they really wanted to be diverse they could do one of those people that are black on one side, asian on the other, which happens when 2 zygotes fuse.  It's called a chimera-so rare I cant find any human examples but here's a feline chimera:

[Lucky Baru]

3 hours ago, kav said:

And Michael was a big Humphrey supporter.  The politics balanced.  It showed both sides as dolts.

Thanks for providing proof to what I stated.  It was political show.  Being political can mean being partisan or it can mean being balanced.  To me it means that.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Lucky Baru

[kav]

14 minutes ago, Lucky Baru said:

Thanks for providing proof to what I stated.  It was political show.  Being political can mean being partisan or it can mean being balanced.  To me it means that.

no because they made fun of politics-not try to make some statement like marvel is doing.

[Bronty]

nah, those archies were political too, just a different brand of politics.     

I just bought some archies from a helpful boardie and I specifically told him I wanted the earlier 60s books with the stories that were about the characters - boys, girls, hamburgers.    As opposed to the archie crew save the whales.     Point is, the archie stories suffered for it too, not as much as the marvel stories, but suffer they did as the stories stop being stories and started becoming a soapbox for the message du jour.

 

Edited April 7, 2017 by Bronty

[Hamlet]

20 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

 

Some of the stories using the new Muslim Ms Marvel are set around high school experiences as were our early Silver Age Amazing Spider-Man issues.  In my 50s, I'm not really that interested in reading more of the same again but,  judging from less-than-stratospheric sales figures, neither does that setting appear to have resonated much with the current generation of teens.

I was impressed with this title.  It really does have the same feel that drew me to ASM when I was a kid.  I've read a few to my daughter.  She liked them, but she's still a little young for them.

I don't think the sales for the series are bad (30k+), given how few issues much more established characters with large installed fan bases are selling.

Note that I read them on my iPad through Marvel Unlimited, and I would expect most teens to read them that way these days.  Why would anyone pay $3.99/comic when you can buy all of them for $69/year?

[classicaaron]

aside from the political issues brought up here can I just point out the obvious that marvel has just been outright stupid and that is why sales are suffering.  how else can you explain books like slapstick, fool killer, prowler, etc apparently being better sellers than wolverine and fantastic four.  they must think they are better sellers since they produced one and not the other.  no one in their right mind could  ever conceive such a notion.

 

and they just have too many solo books for anyone to care about.  guardians of the galaxy could be a strong title as a stand alone.  but when you make a rocket, star lord, gamora, drax, and groot book in addition to guardians it all gets very watered down.  stick with the main team books and the heavy hitter solo acts like spiderman and hulk and call it a day.  I think this alone would greatly improve sales.  I would even attempt to get all marvel books if they only published 20 or so titles a month.  but seems their strategy of selling is to sell 1 copy of 100 different books than 100 copies of just 1 book which does nothing but increase their costs while still hitting the same sales which equals lesser profit.

[Ken Aldred]

6 hours ago, Hamlet said:

I was impressed with this title.  It really does have the same feel that drew me to ASM when I was a kid.  I've read a few to my daughter.  She liked them, but she's still a little young for them.

I don't think the sales for the series are bad (30k+), given how few issues much more established characters with large installed fan bases are selling.

Note that I read them on my iPad through Marvel Unlimited, and I would expect most teens to read them that way these days.  Why would anyone pay $3.99/comic when you can buy all of them for $69/year?

It actually isn't bad at all.  I'm just jaded and I don't have particularly fond memories of my schooldays.

As you've said, its sales relative to other titles are okay.  It's just that being old I remember decent sales figures being around 200k.  

[NP_Gresham]

The distribution Marvel and all the publishers use now, greatly limits exposure and this ensures a shrinking fan base. It will eventually come home to roost in movie revenue if they don't expand their fan base.

It similar to boxing vs the NFL. In it's hey day boxing had greater fan interest than the NFL. But the NFL made the decision to keep its product available to all audiences, while boxing tried to squeeze every dollar from every fight by going closed circuit and small venue instead of large capacity stadiums they also cut off free events like the "Friday Night fights".

The exposure the publishers got from all the mom and pop stores having spinner racks fed an ever growing audience. They should put spinner racks in Walmarts and such and increase the audience.

[Hamlet]

1 hour ago, Ken Aldred said:

It actually isn't bad at all.  I'm just jaded and I don't have particularly fond memories of my schooldays.

As you've said, its sales relative to other titles are okay.  It's just that being old I remember decent sales figures being around 200k.  

I think the fundamental issue is that printed comics are a buggy whip industry.  My daughter's main exposure to the medium has been digital.  Almost anything printed ( magazines, newspapers, books ) is a shrinking industry.  The concept of getting paper copies of these things is pretty foreign to most younger folks.  Collectors like the printed version.  Readers are mostly moving to digital long term.

Marvel's terrible stories have made it worse, but in the end printed comics are going to lose most of their market no matter what.

 

[01TheDude]

1 hour ago, Hamlet said:

I think the fundamental issue is that printed comics are a buggy whip industry.  My daughter's main exposure to the medium has been digital.  Almost anything printed ( magazines, newspapers, books ) is a shrinking industry.  The concept of getting paper copies of these things is pretty foreign to most younger folks.  Collectors like the printed version.  Readers are mostly moving to digital long term.

Marvel's terrible stories have made it worse, but in the end printed comics are going to lose most of their market no matter what.

 

I agree with this and perhaps it is a shame.

Spoiler

 

Because unlike newspapers, comic books are really a unique art form imo. Sure-- you can see the art and read the stories on a tablet. But owning a copy of a book that was part of your childhood has a special meaning to lots of us. That is where that buggy whip comes into play-- they aren't making us anymore. Kids growing up now can't understand the thrill of buying from a rack-- well at least not comics since that ship sailed in the 1980s.

The one thing we can hope for is that the digital media and movies keep going forward and draw in those without that childhood physical book connection. Those folks will have plenty of old books to find and collect if they get the bug. That is what might save this hobby for a several decades or so. Some of the classic golden age books will be 100 years old-- and due to the paper stock they were made -- in dwindling numbers, becoming brittle and falling apart. That will also happen to the silver age books the way I see it no matter how good a job we do at preservation. Acid will win in the end.

Oh well-- enjoy the hobby while you can-- cash out if you think it is going bust. I'm sure those of us who are looking for some of those books won't mind at all. I feel it will at the least stay strong for many years to come.

 

 

[FineCollector]

2 hours ago, Hamlet said:

Note that I read them on my iPad through Marvel Unlimited, and I would expect most teens to read them that way these days.  Why would anyone pay $3.99/comic when you can buy all of them for $69/year?

You're the one giving your daughter digital comics... of course she's going to prefer digital when she grows up!  If you give her paper comics, she'll grow up nostalgic for paper comics.  Apple pie from the farmer's market, Saturday mornings at the flea market... she'll grow up nostalgic for whatever happy memories she shares with you.  She's only going to read digital because you taught her to.